Supported by his son, Bruce Webber, left, Stillwater resident Bob Webber, center, is congratulated after being presented with the French Legion of Honor medal by Counsul General of France, Guillaume Lacroix, right, during a ceremony Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2018 at VFW Post 323 in Oak Park Heights. Webber, 95, served during World War II with the American 517th Parachute Infantry Regiment paratroopers and was among the paratroopers to drop into southern France behind German lines. He parachuted near Le Muy, France on Aug. 15, 1944 with Operation Dragoon as part of the Allied invasion of France. (Jean Pieri / Pioneer Press)

A historical photo of World War II paratrooper Bob Webber is displayed, along with other memorabilia, on a table as the Stillwater resident is presented with the French Legion of Honor medal in a ceremony Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2018 at VFW Post 323 in Oak Park Heights. Webber, 95, served during World War II with the American 517th Parachute Infantry Regiment paratroopers and was among the paratroopers to drop into southern France behind German lines. He parachuted near Le Muy, France on Aug. 15, 1944 with Operation Dragoon as part of the Allied invasion of France. The Counsul General of France, Guillaume Lacroix, traveled from the French Consulate in Chicago for the pinning ceremony. (Jean Pieri / Pioneer Press)

The Counsul General of France, Guillaume Lacroix, left, makes a champagne toast to Stillwater resident, Bob Webber, 95, after he pinned the French Legion of Honor medal on him during a ceremony Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2018 at VFW Post 323 in Oak Park Heights. Webber served during World War II with the American 517th Parachute Infantry Regiment paratroopers and was among the paratroopers to drop into southern France behind German lines. He parachuted near Le Muy, France on Aug. 15, 1944 with Operation Dragoon as part of the Allied invasion of France.
The are surrounded by, from left, Mel Dahlberg, a fellow paratrooper from the 517th regiment, Christina Selander-Bouzouina, an honorary consul for France in Minnesota, Bruce Webber, Bob's son, Ted Kozlowski, Stillwater mayor, and Barb Kruse, Bob's daughter. (Jean Pieri / Pioneer Press)

The World War II uniform of Stillwater resident Bob Webber is displayed for a ceremony where he received the French Legion of Honor medal Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2018 at VFW Post 323 in Oak Park Heights. Webber, 95, served during World War II with the American 517th Parachute Infantry Regiment paratroopers and was among the paratroopers to drop into southern France behind German lines. He parachuted near Le Muy, France on Aug. 15, 1944 with Operation Dragoon as part of the Allied invasion of France. (Jean Pieri / Pioneer Press)

Stillwater resident Bob Webber, 95, is congratulated after receiving the French Legion of Honor medal during a ceremony Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2018 at VFW Post 323 in Oak Park Heights. Webber was among the American paratroopers to drop into southern France behind German lines in August 1944.. (Jean Pieri / Pioneer Press)

The French government on Wednesday presented its highest honor to a 95-year-old Stillwater man who fought in World War II.

On behalf of French President Emmanuel Macron, the Consul General of France, Guillaume Lacroix, pinned the Legion of Honor medal on Bob Webber, calling him “a true French hero.”

“What you did was enormous,” Lacroix told Webber during the midday ceremony at the Stillwater VFW in Oak Park Heights. “Without you, without your sacrifice, the French flag that is flying there would not be flying today. There would be no France today. It is as simple as that.”

Webber was 21 years old in 1944 when he parachuted into southern France behind German lines as part of the Allied invasion of France. He and 5,000 other members of the 517th Parachute Infantry Regiment — dubbed the “Battling Buzzards” — landed near Le Muy, France, on Aug. 15, 1944, during Operation Dragoon.

“It was 4:30 in the morning, and it was still dark,” Webber said in an interview before the ceremony. “You couldn’t see the ground or anything. While everybody was coming in to land, you could hear what sounded like splashing. It was trees and brushes that we were landing in. I landed in small brush. I was one of the lucky ones.”

The paratroopers who landed on water weren’t so fortunate, said Bruce Webber, Webber’s son. “If you landed on water, you were dead,” he said. “You would just go straight to the bottom.”

Webber, a member of the mortar patrol, had to parachute in with a 40-inch plate for the mortar, Bruce Webber said.

“They had to carry the ammunition, the mortar,” he said. “In his platoon, there were four separate mortars, so you can imagine the work they had to do. They pushed the Germans all the way up to the Italian border.”

About a month after he parachuted into France, Webber was wounded when a German mortar shell exploded in his face and neck.

Webber spent the next two years pulling pieces of shrapnel out of his skin “as the metal worked its way out,” Bruce Webber said. “His commanding officer, (William) ‘Wild Bill’ Boyle, made him get in a jeep and took him to the infirmary to get patched up, but he went right back to the unit. He’s a tough old buzzard.”

Webber previously received a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star and other awards for his service during World War II.

FRANCE’S HIGHEST DISTINCTION

On Wednesday, he also became a knight. The Order of the Legion of Honor (Ordre national de la Legion d’honneur) is the oldest French national order, established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802, “when Minnesota was a French territory,” Lacroix said.

“We all know that Mr. Webber not only has accomplished the deeds and merits to make him eligible, but we all know that it took too long for him to be recognized,” Lacroix said. “But the recognition that you are getting is forever. This is a symbol of the forever gratitude of the French people to you, sir, to your family, to your community, to your people, to your generation — America’s greatest generation. While you are a hero, a true American hero, today you are becoming a true French hero — a hero of two nations.”

Webber grew up in Stillwater and was drafted into the Army in March 1943. He said he volunteered to be a paratrooper because they were paid an extra $50 a month. “He can be pretty thrifty,” Bruce Webber said. “He was a product of the Depression.”

Webber was sent to Camp Toccoa, an Army paratrooper camp in Georgia, for basic training. He had to run seven miles up Mount Currahee carrying his rifle, parachute and full field pack, he said.

He was then sent to Fort Benning for parachute training, where paratroopers were required to jump off towers of increasing height each day. After five jumps, the paratroopers would earn their “wings,” he said.

“It was very tough,” Bruce Webber said. “It was very difficult to make it. Many were weeded out. If you couldn’t make it as a paratrooper, a lot of the troops got put into the gliders, which came in after their jump.”

“They were made of nothing but a piece of plywood and cloth,” Bob Webber said.

“Many of them crashed and killed the guys before they even got to fight,” Bruce Webber said.

After the war, Webber worked as a streetcar driver and a bus driver. He and his wife, Shirley, later owned and operated the TomTom Resort in Balsam Lake, Wis. The couple had three children; son Randy, of Balsam Lake, died in March. Daughter Barbara Kruse lives in Stillwater; Bruce Webber lives in West Palm Beach, Fla.

After attending a reunion of the 517th in France in August 2016, Webber learned he might be eligible for the French Legion of Honor. Bruce Webber said the process took almost 1½ years.

Stillwater Mayor Ted Kozlowski said Webber was an “amazing example” of the city’s long and proud military history, starting with Company B of the Minnesota First Volunteers who served during the Civil War.

“When our boys, now boys and girls, are called to service in Stillwater, we always answer the call,” Kozlowski said. “I can’t imagine what it must have been like, in 1944, to jump out of an airplane; I don’t even know if I would fly in an airplane that was built in 1944, let alone jump out of one in the middle of the night, behind enemy lines, to fight for our country.

“It’s absolutely incredible to think about the service that you gave to our country, Bob,” he said at Wednesday’s ceremony. “And the fact that you’re a resident of Stillwater just makes me incredibly proud.”

Mary Divine is a reporter for the St. Paul Pioneer Press. She covers Washington County and the St. Croix River Valley, but has also spent time covering the state Capitol. She has won numerous journalism awards, including the Premack Award and the Minnesota Society of Professional Journalists' Page One Award. Prior to joining the Pioneer Press in 1998, she worked for the Rochester, Minn., Post-Bulletin and at the St. Joseph, Mo., News-Press. Her work has also appeared in a number of magazines, including Mpls/St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Business Monthly and Minnesota Magazine. She is a graduate of Carleton College and lives in St. Paul with her husband, Greg Myers, and their three children, Henry, 17, Frances, 15, and Fred, 12.

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